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Alicent had worked herself into a frenzy, a not all too uncommon occurrence. She had spent the entire day darting around the house making sure everything was in order, not to mention the hours slaving away in the kitchen. She had even managed to rope Daeron into it after he got home from school.
When Rhaenyra came back from work, she insisted upon helping them prepare for dinner at least but Alicent flatly denied her. She, quite frankly, didn’t trust Rhaenyra to cook, a wise choice, and everything tonight had to go perfectly.
Tonight, her children were coming home.
Daeron, her youngest, was still in high school and still lived with her, but the rest had scattered off to their own lives. Aemond and Helaena texted and occasionally called from their colleges, but she knew for Alicent, it wasn’t the same as having them physically here. Aegon was a much more complicated story, but he too had agreed to come home for the holidays.
It would be the first time they were all together in nearly two years, and the first time Rhaenyra was joining the Hightowers for the holidays since she moved in with Alicent last spring. She and Daeron had already had ample time to get to know each other, but the other three she knew less.
She was pulled out of her thoughts as headlights shone in the driveway. “They’re here!” She called out.
“Here?!” She heard right before she heard a plate drop to the ground and shatter, followed by a “Shit!” and a laugh from Daeron.
Rhaenyra peered into the kitchen to see them, Alicent hurriedly picking up the shards of the plate to throw into the trash while Daeron washed his hands and took off his cooking apron.
“I haven’t showered yet, look at me, I’m a mess. I need to change, I need to finish cleaning, the roast beef isn’t even done-” Alicent said, frantically.
“Darling, darling,” Rhaenyra spoke softly, putting her hands on Alicent’s shoulders to focus her attention. “It will be just fine.”
Alicent clearly didn’t believe her but she supposed it was too late to worry as the door came open and the rest of the Hightower family entered.
Daeron didn’t waste any time, rushing past his mother and Rhaenyra to the door where Aemond greeted him with a smile and an embrace. Aegon was less enthusiastic about it but allowed a hug from Daeron regardless.
“When’d you get so tall?” Aegon muttered bitterly, seeing his youngest brother now had a couple inches on him.
“When’d you get so short?” Daeron countered.
Alicent took a deep breath, removed her apron, and went to greet her kids. “Oh, my loves,” she smiled, seeing them all again. Aemond went in for a hug first, then Alicent paused waiting for Helaena to give her permission to embrace her which she did, then Aegon reluctantly accepted one. Daeron also got a hug even though they’d been together all afternoon.
“We missed you, mum,” Helaena greeted.
“Yeah, we missed you, mum,” Criston teased with a smirk. Rhaenyra blinked in surprise, not even realizing he was standing by the doorway. He had been the one driving around all day collecting the Hightower kids while Alicent prepared.
Alicent scoffed, and said playfully, “You’re not getting a hug.”
“I’m wounded, truly, after all I’ve done for you,” Criston said, sarcastically holding his hand to his chest in mock pain which Alicent chuckled at. Criston was their neighbor and Alicent’s best friend. He had apparently been helping Alicent raise the Hightower kids since Aegon was a baby because their real father was so absent, so much so that he was a de facto part of the family. There was no question about him joining in on the holiday festivities.
“Hi, Rhaenyra,” Helaena waved, noticing that she was here.
She gestured back, “Nice to see all of you again.” That seemed to be the end of the conversation, as Helaena turned back to Daeron who was explaining some drama that had happened at his school. Alicent had already heard the story but she was listening intently along with the rest.
Rhaenyra was glad to see her girlfriend be so happy around her children again, though she couldn’t help but feel a slight twinge of sadness. Rhaenyra wasn’t quite integrated into their family yet, she felt more like a stranger.
Aegon in particular never liked her. Aemond was protective of his mother, Helaena distant and nervous around this new person in their lives, but Aegon was the one who greeted her with hostility. He hated Rhaenyra’s newfound place in their lives and in their mother’s heart.
It didn’t help that around the time Alicent and Rhaenyra began dating was also when he and Alicent started fighting more about his career, his future, his constant drinking, eventually leading to him moving out of the house and cutting off contact with his family for a year and a half.
She trailed after the Hightower family as they moved away from the door and towards the dining room. Alicent had made way more food than was necessary, making sure everybody’s favorite food was here. She quickly excused herself to go change, and by the time she returned, the conversation was in full swing.
“Has old Beesbury croaked yet?” Aegon asked with a chuckle. Alicent lightly chastised him but didn’t care all that much.
“He’s still kicking,” Daeron confirmed. “He’s like eighty now, I don’t know how he’s still teaching.”
“Oh!” Daeron suddenly remembered. “Criston nearly hit Mr. Beesbury with his car.”
Aegon and Aemond laughed, desperate to know the story while Criston protested, “I did not almost hit Beesbury, that’s not what happened.” The grin on the older man was clear to see however. “I was nowhere near him, he just thought I was too close because he’s near senile.”
“How about we get off the topic of Mr. Beesbury’s impending death?” Alicent offered, a few snide chuckles followed from Aegon and Daeron’s direction. “I want to hear more about my darlings, how have you been, what have you been up to?”
The three new arrivals sat silently for a moment, waiting for another of them to be the first to say anything. Aemond ended up being the one to break the silence, “I got a 4.0 this semester.”
“That’s wonderful,” Alicent beamed. “Well done!”
Helaena followed her younger brother, “I joined a club recently. There’s a beekeepers club on campus.”
“Is that fun?” Alicent asked. Rhaenyra knew she never liked insects but tried to take an interest for her daughter’s sake. Helaena nodded, timid but sure. The girl didn’t offer any more information than that, not keen to remain the center of attention in the room, but Alicent still smiled.
Eyes wandered over to Aegon, waiting for him to share. He tried to ignore them and focus on his suddenly very interesting glass of water. Eventually, he caved, “I got nothing. Sorry.”
“Nothing at all to share?” Criston urged in a soft voice. Rhaenyra had seen him slip into a more fatherly persona with the kids before. It was so unlike his usual demeanor, she found it a little jarring but nice.
Aegon shrugged. He thought for a moment, reluctantly reaching into his pocket and pulling out a small token. “I, uh…I got my 6-month chip…at the meetings.”
Aegon had been struggling with alcoholism for as long as Rhaenyra had known him. A problem that had only gotten worse in the year and a half he cut off contact. Rhaenyra never asked for details but she knew Alicent had left in a hurry to speak to him and their meeting ended with Aegon finally going into rehab.
Alicent got out of her seat and embraced Aegon tightly. He looked a little awkward to be receiving such affection but a smile crept onto his face and he hugged her back. “Congratulations, my boy. I’m so proud of you,” Alicent told him, planting a kiss on his temple.
A round of congratulations came from everyone else at the table, Rhaenyra included. Aegon looked at Rhaenyra a tad warily when she did, but nodded and accepted it. Dinner continued as normal, Rhaenyra chiming in whenever she could but mostly left the conversation to the Hightowers.
As the night came to an end, they turned in one by one. Criston finally went back to his house next door, the kids retired to their old rooms, leaving Alicent and Rhaenyra to clean up the dinner table. Or, more accurately, just Rhaenyra as she had so chivalrously insisted Alicent leave it to her.
Rhaenyra lazily washed the dishes, trying not to think about how this amount was likely to be a daily occurrence with six people now living in the house.
A cough interrupted her thoughts, turning quickly to see Aegon standing awkwardly in the hallway, like he was meaning to say something but couldn’t find the courage to.
“Hey, Aegon,” she waved. “Your mother’s in her room upstairs, if you need her.”
“No, I, um,” Aegon started cautiously. “I wanted to talk to you.” That got Rhaenyra’s attention. It wasn’t often any of the kids really wanted to speak to her, much less Aegon. A few more seconds of him being unsure passed before he continued, “I’m sorry.”
“You’re sorry?”
“I was a dick to you and to mum when you started dating, and I never said sorry. So…sorry,” He finished.
Rhaenyra smiled but shook her head, “You do not need to apologize. I understand you were going through your own troubles.”
“Still, I’m sorry,” Aegon repeated.
Rhaenyra nodded, “I forgive you.” She truthfully never held a grudge about it, but figured the words would bring him some comfort.
She expected that to be the end of the conversation, but Aegon lingered in the hallway for a bit longer. “Was there something else?” She asked.
“Thank you,” he said, quickly. Before Rhaenyra could ask what he meant, he continued, “When I was a kid, mum wasn’t always so…cheerful and open. Daeron has told me a lot and I saw it tonight, you make her very happy.”
Rhaenyra felt the tug at her heartstrings. She didn’t realize how much she wanted the approval of Alicent’s kids until he said that. Part of her felt tears begging at her eyes in joy, but she blinked them away quickly, Aegon was still standing there expecting a response.
“You’re very welcome, Aegon, but believe me, the pleasure is mine. Alicent is amazing, we’re all very lucky to have her.”
Soon enough, Aegon returned to his room to sleep and Rhaenyra got back to washing dishes, but she found she had a small smile on her face and a lightness in her heart as she did it. It was not much, but it was a start.
Rhaenyra has always liked snow. The chill in the air never really bothered her, her father used to say they’re family had fire in their veins, and so she enjoyed playing out in the backyard for hours on end with her cousins, building snowmen, having snowball fights, making snow angels, and anything else they could think of.
Now, shoveling snow on the other hand? Rhaenyra absolutely despised it.
She could feel her muscles start to ache as she lifted another pile of snow off the driveway with her shovel and tossed it off to the side. At the very least, the process was going quickly. Criston had, of course, come to help, along with Daeron and Aemond. Aegon had also come, much later and grumbling all the while.
“I’m starving,” Aegon muttered as they worked.
“The sooner we get this done, the sooner we can get some lunch, hm?” Aemond told him.
“I haven’t even had breakfast,” Aegon bemoaned.
“That’s cause you slept through it,” Daeron reminded him, amused.
“Why would I ever get up early on a Saturday?” Aegon asked rhetorically.
“To have breakfast,” Aemond answered like it was obvious. The three brothers continued to bicker back and forth, shoveling snow momentarily forgotten.
“I suppose some things never change,” Criston mused next to Rhaenyra with a small smile, out of earshot of the boys.
“Hm?” She asked.
“The boys, they just reminded me of when they were young,” he answered.
“What were they like then?” Rhaenyra had heard some stories from Alicent but was still curious to hear more.
“You’d never find three more different boys than them, and they argued constantly as brothers are like to do,” Criston explained. “But they loved each other then, and still do now. I remember Daeron used to trail after his brothers and copy everything they did because he wanted to be like them. And Aegon pretends he doesn’t care but you should’ve seen him when Aemond had his accident.” Rhaenyra knew he meant the fight at school that escalated much too far and cost Aemond his left eye.
“I would’ve liked to have seen them back then,” Rhaenyra thought aloud quietly. She remembered as a girl she vowed she would never want kids, but Rhaenyra now found herself wanting to be closer to the Hightowers.
Criston and Rhaenyra were pulled out of their conversation with the sound of a loud splat as Aegon threw a snowball at Aemond and nailed him on the cheek. The other two brothers laughed as Aemond took a second to wipe off his face before rushing to make his own snowball.
Catching on, Aegon and Daeron immediately rushed away and started making their own, preparing for the imminent snowball fight.
“Alright, alright,” Criston told them, catching their attention. “We still have work to do, guys.”
“Boooo,” Aegon dissented from his hiding place behind Alicent’s car.
“You’re all old enough to not get distracted by a snowball fight.” A smirk curled onto Rhaenyra’s face as she had an idea. Criston’s back was to her, so she leaned down as discreetly as she could, grabbing a handful of snow and forming it into a ball.
“Let’s just all go back to-” Criston started, getting interrupted as Rhaenyra tossed the snowball, hitting the back of his head abruptly. He turned around slowly, shocked but clearly a little amused. “Really?”
Rhaenyra shrugged, and the boys took that as their cue to continue. Immediately, Aegon threw another snowball at Criston and Daeron flinged one at Aemond.
“Oh, you guys are dead,” Criston laughed, throwing down his shovel and reaching down to make his own snowball.
Before long, the entire driveway had become a battleground. Rhaenyra ducked behind the large snowpile she and Criston had made while shoveling for cover. Aegon darted around Alicent’s car to hide from the onslaught of snowballs and Criston did the same with Rhaenyra’s car. Daeron and Aemond quickly made their own walls of snow to use as shields.
Rhaenyra pelted Daeron with a snowball when he peeked out from behind his wall, only to immediately face retaliation with two more from Aemond and Aegon’s direction.
Aemond was surprisingly skilled at throwing despite his one eye, Rhaenyra could barely move an inch out of her cover without him hitting her dead on.
She heard Criston laugh as he ran out from behind her car, sliding into the snow and behind Rhaenyra’s snowpile.
“This is my cover, get your own,” she chastised.
“They’ve teamed up on us,” Criston said, worriedly, sparing but a glance over the top of the pile.
Rhaenyra took a peek as well, seeing Daeron now working to fortify the wall of snow Aemond was hiding behind while Aegon made snowballs for the three of them.
“Bastards,” she cursed underneath her breath. Those three had started this snowball fight and here they were ganging up on them.
“Come on out!” Aemond taunted.
“Cowards!” Aegon added with a laugh.
“We’re fucked,” Criston decided at once.
“Yeah,” Rhaenyra agreed. She grabbed two snowballs in her hands and turned back to him, “I go right, you go left?” Might as well give it one last try.
Criston nodded, grabbing two snowballs of his own. They counted down from three silently then burst out of their cover.
Immediately Rhaenyra got hit with a snowball from Daeron. Then a second and a third from Aemond. Her first throw missed and the second hit the shield unsuccessfully. In her haste as well, she had tripped in the snow and fallen into the pile of icy flakes.
The three boys cheered in victory with some light taunting. Rhaenyra rolled in the freezing snow to face Criston who seemed to have met a similar fate to her, lying on his back with a lazy grin.
“There doesn’t seem to be much shoveling happening,” she heard Alicent call from the porch of the house. Immediately the boys’ celebration stopped and they looked at her guiltily.
Pulling her head up from the snow, Rhaenyra saw Alicent still in her pajamas, though with a heavy jacket and slippers on, very clearly judging all of them for being adults in a snowball fight.
“We took a little break,” Rhaenyra offered.
Alicent rolled her eyes, though she couldn’t hide the smile on her lips. “Well, come take a break inside. Warm up before you all catch a cold, Helaena and I made hot chocolate.”
Aegon didn’t need to hear anything more than “take a break inside”, immediately making a beeline towards the front door. Daeron and Aemond at least remembered to bring in their shovels as they headed back in, with Aemond grabbing Aegon’s lost one.
Criston rose up from his spot on the ground before her, wiping the snow out of his hair, and offered Rhaenyra his hand to help her up. “Thank you,” she said.
“ That is what they were like when they were young,” Criston said with a grin as they walked back towards the house. “And as I said, they haven’t changed.”
Tonight was a quiet night in the Hightower household, or as close as one could get to it. Alicent had already turned in for the night, Aegon and Aemond had gone out to the movies, Daeron and Helaena were quiet in their rooms, and for once Criston remembered he had his own house to live in.
Rhaenyra lazed on the couch, staring at her laptop as the words started to blur together. She worked at a law firm and absolutely had to finish drafting this contract for the deadline tomorrow. Rhaenyra was three cups of coffee in already and nowhere near done.
She was so focused on work, she almost didn’t notice as Helaena appeared in the living room, a large plastic bin in her hands. She smiled at Rhaenyra briefly before turning towards the Christmas tree in the corner of the room.
Silently, Helaena pulled ornaments out of the bin one by one, placing them on the tree carefully.
“You decorate the tree by yourself?” Rhaenyra wondered aloud. “In my home, we always made it a family event.”
Helaena looked a bit embarrassed for a moment but nodded, “My brothers don’t really care and mum always fusses too much about where everything goes, it takes forever.”
“I could help, if you want,” Rhaenyra said, without thinking. She really did need to do work, but perhaps a small break would help, she reasoned.
Helaena looked conflicted as she slowly considered it and Rhaenyra waited patiently. “That…would be good,” she eventually decided.
Rhaenyra made her way to join her at the Christmas tree. Helaena moved so the bin of ornaments was between them and Rhaenyra was careful not to get too close. Alicent had told her very specifically the first time she came to meet her kids that Helaena hated being touched without permission.
Rhaenyra tried to make light conversation as they put up the decorations, “In my home, we always got a real tree for Christmas. My father insisted upon it every year.” The Hightowers had an artificial one.
“Daeron wanted a real one very badly when we were kids,” Helaena recalled. “Mum never let us get one though. According to her father, it’s a waste of time, too messy, and quite childish.” She knew Alicent hadn’t had the best upbringing and that had trickled down to her kids, especially with their absentee father. A soft smile curled its way onto Helaena’s face though, “Criston got a real one once though, he let us decorate it.”
The girl was lost in the fond memory for a few moments, before remembering she wasn’t alone and returned to the task at hand. “You said your whole family helped put up ornaments?” Helaena asked tentatively.
Rhaenyra was quietly glad that Helaena seemed to be enjoying talking to her. “Yes, I would pester my father for weeks about going to get the tree, then whenever he inevitably gave in, we’d make a whole day out of picking one out, decorating it, making dinner.”
“Will they miss you this year?”
Rhaenyra hesitated for a second but continued, “No, I don’t think they will. We haven’t had a proper Christmas celebration since I left for college.” Rhaenyra added in her head that her father was terribly sick. According to her mother and Baelon, he barely gets out of bed these days. But she didn’t want to bring down Helaena’s spirits with that news.
They settled into silence for a while, continuing their work. The back of Rhaenyra’s mind tried to tell her to go back to her actual work but she ignored it for the time being. Pulling another ornament out of the bin, she took a quick look at it. Four popsicle sticks glued together, in the center was an image of a young boy with Aegon written at the bottom.
“Aegon,” Rhaenyra echoed with an amused look on her face. Helaena looked over, immediately recognizing it. A grin forming on her face, she quickly started digging through the bin to find three more identical ornaments for the other three kids.
“We all had the same kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Lannister,” Helaena recalled. “And every year she did the same arts and crafts project with her students and mum kept every one we did.”
Rhaenyra smiled at the thought, looking down at the pictures of the young Hightowers. Aemond in particular looked so different. She recalled many of Alicent’s stories about how much more lively and kind Aemond was before he lost his eye.
“Any other fun memories?” Rhaenyra asked.
Helaena thought for a moment, looking back in the bin, “Oh!” She grabbed four, a knight, a lady, a horse, and a dragon. “Mum got us this set when Aemond had a “medieval” phase.”
She held up the dragon carefully, pointing at one of its wings which seemed to be in two pieces, glued back together. “Aegon immediately dropped it before we could even put it on the tree,” Helaena laughed.
“I had a bit of a medieval phase myself,” Rhaenyra recalled, with a chuckle. “Told my mother I wanted to be a knight when I grew up and I was heartbroken when she told me that’s not a profession anymore.”
Helaena giggled, trying to find another with a story. There was a pair of dinosaur ornaments from when Daeron was a kid, a tower ornament that apparently everyone in the family had, several bug themed ornaments that her brothers hated but Helaena insisted upon putting front and center every year. She also sadly recounted that there used to be more handmade ornaments, arts and crafts from school, but Aegon had destroyed several of them beyond repair one night several years ago when he was angry and drunk.
Time had slipped far away from them and Rhaenyra knew she would regret it in a few hours when she had to stay up into the early hours of the morning to finish her work, but she was having fun hearing the memories of the Hightower family and Helaena was opening up to her for once.
When the last decoration went up, an angel at the top of the tree, Helaena then excitedly grabbed the multi-colored string lights. The two coiled it around the tree, through the branches and around the base.
They held their breaths in anticipation as Rhaenyra turned them on and the entire living room lit up with bright colors. Helaena clapped happily and giggled, while Rhaenyra smiled proudly.
Rhaenyra briefly remembered the same giddy feeling she got when she did this with her parents as a child. Her dad lifting her up on his shoulders to put an ornament up on a high branch, her mom smiling sweetly and bringing out treats for them to eat. She silently made a promise to call home in the morning.
Their task complete, Helaena decided to turn in for the night.
“Thank you for all your help, Rhaenyra. It was fun,” Helaena said. She looked unsure for a moment but eventually opened her arms to Rhaenyra, allowing for a hug. A wide grin on her face, Rhaenyra embraced the girl, glad that Helaena trusted her.
She returned to her work with renewed energy, overjoyed in the knowledge that she was growing ever closer in bond to the Hightowers.
“I’m the oldest so I should go first,” Aegon argued.
“You’re just gonna watch yours and fall asleep for the rest of them,” Daeron countered.
“That’s what everybody does!”
Rhaenyra was laying on the couch as the boys argued over the order for the, apparently annual, Hightower movie night. As Aemond explained it, Alicent had started the tradition with her late husband, spending a day around the holidays to watch movies. Originally it was just holiday films, but it eventually turned into just their favorite movies. The tradition continued as the children were born, though their father stopped participating in it, and now became less of a “night”, stretching nearly the entire day.
“If you fall asleep we skip your movie, that’s the rules, Aegon,” Alicent asked, walking into the living room with the third bowl of popcorn. She was dressed in just pajamas and an oversized shirt, just like everyone else. With one movie for each of them, none of them were going anywhere all day.
“You just made that up,” Aegon complained.
“Can we just pick who’s going first?” Aemond asked.
“Helaena’s going first,” Alicent announced. Daeron and Aegon started protesting, but Alicent shushed them. “She asked first, several days ago.”
Helaena excitedly jumped from her seat on the other couch, grabbing the remote, and navigating to the movie of her choice. The Nightmare Before Christmas , of course. Festive and suitably bug-filled for Helaena’s interest.
“You pick that every year,” Aegon muttered.
“And it’s still good, every year,” Helaena argued.
The family settled into their spots. Aemond and Helaena sat on the other couch, while Aegon and Daeron laid on the floor. Alicent sat next to Rhaenyra’s seat, leaning back against her chest while Rhaenyra’s arm wound around her. Each pair had a large bowl of popcorn and several thick blankets for the movies.
Despite his grumbling, Rhaenyra caught Aegon humming along to the songs with the rest of them. Helaena spouted off several fun facts and pointed out details throughout the movie, which Rhaenyra kind of adorable. She could absolutely believe Helaena chose this same movie every year.
Aegon and Daeron jumped to be next as soon as the film ended. They ended up playing rock-paper-scissors for it which Daeron won. With a smug look in Aegon’s direction, he chose Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 . Rhaenyra vaguely recalled watching in theaters years before with some friends. A story about a real, terrible father, and an imperfect but loving found father. No wonder Daeron liked it so much.
Aemond scoffed, “A superhero movie,” but didn’t raise anymore complaints. Rhaenyra, Daeron, and Aegon laughed loudly and often at it, though she could plainly see that Alicent found some of the humor a bit crass. Still, Alicent found herself brought to sobbing tears by the end which she hid, poorly, by burying her head in Rhaenyra’s chest. She expected to hear a joke about it from her children, only to see Aegon and Helaena had gotten equally as weepy.
They paused briefly to make lunch, which Aegon hated as it interrupted him just before starting his own movie. By the time they all settled, he was practically bursting at the seams. RoboCop , he had chosen. According to Alicent, he much preferred older 70s and 80s movies as they were apparently their father’s favorite.
Helaena had to step away several times, disturbed by the amount of blood and violence. Aemond, at least, found it more interesting than Daeron’s choice, though for seemingly very different reasons than Aegon, who reveled in the gore and action. The elder brother and Rhaenyra were able to bond over that.
Aemond’s turn, which made his brothers groan. “You always pick something pretentious and boring,” Daeron said.
Aemond rolled his eyes and ended up picking Tenet , mentioning specifically he was only picking an action movie for their benefit. Aegon and Daeron asked a lot of questions during it, much to Aemond’s exasperation, who assured them to just watch and it would make sense, to which Aegon promptly fell asleep.
Rhaenyra could barely hear the actual words being said and by the end she still didn’t totally get it. Alicent and Helaena seemed to like it though, which Aemond was pleased with.
Alicent spent entirely too long deciding which movie she would pick. She browsed through countless streaming services, oohing and ahhing at movies she recognized, with the occasional “oh, I really love that one” thrown in.
“Fun story, I snuck out of my room to watch this in theaters three times when I was a teenager,” Alicent said when she hovered over But I’m a Cheerleader.
“And it took you twenty years after that to realize you were a lesbian?” Rhaenyra teased. She lightly hit Rhaenyra on the shoulder for that. They ended up ordering pizza and it almost arrived before she finally decided on the West Side Story remake that she’d been wanting to see.
“A story about love, forbidden by the girl’s family,” Rhaenyra whispered to her girlfriend.
Alicent rolled her eyes, tilting her head up so she could plant a quick peck to Rhaenyra’s cheek. “No parallels whatsoever,” she said before leaning back down.
The kids were getting a bit restless by this point. Dinner only seemed to satisfy them mildly. Aegon tried to stay awake but he clearly wanted to flutter back off to sleep, Daeron was only half-paying attention as he scrolled on his phone, even Helaena looked more than a bit weary.
When the credits rolled, Rhaenyra assumed everyone was ready to call it a day, until she noticed everyone’s eyes were on her. “Your turn,” Alicent said, passing her the remote.
“I get a turn?” Rhaenyra asked, surprised. They all nodded like that was obvious.
She panicked internally as she looked over the choices. She needed something that wouldn’t make them all fall asleep and be bored but they all had such different tastes.
Rhaenyra ended up choosing The Martian , something with a happy ending, as she knew Alicent and Helaena preferred those, suitably serious and well-made for Aemond, and not too dull for Aegon or Daeron.
She ended up not watching as much, mostly focused on everyone’s reactions, hoping desperately that they didn’t hate her choice. Aemond was always stoic but smiled occasionally. Aegon was tired clearly but still laughed and seemed to be paying attention. Meanwhile Daeron and Helaena got very into it. Even Alicent was lightly cheering at the film’s climax.
She collapsed into bed that night, somehow exhausted from just sitting around and watching movies. The movies were all so different, some very clearly not to each of the kids’ tastes but they still all stuck around through them all. Laughing, sometimes crying, and just enjoying each other’s company and favorite movies.
As she drifted off to sleep, Rhaenyra thought that she wouldn’t mind doing it again next year.
She awoke on Christmas Day well after everyone else. She had assumed that the kids were old enough that they wouldn’t be bouncing around excited to open presents first thing in the morning, but evidently not.
She could hear Aemond and Daeron speaking loudly and the sizzle of breakfast on the stove. She tried to close her eyes and continue sleeping, if only for a bit longer, but then she heard the telltale sound of footsteps bounding up the stairs to her and Alicent’s room.
“Rhaenyra! Wake up!” She heard Daeron call from the doorway.
She groaned groggily, “I see now why my parents always hated getting up early on Christmas.”
Daeron ignored that, “Come on, get up! We can’t start opening gifts until the whole family is downstairs.”
Whole family?
Rhaenyra had barely lifted her head off the pillow before Daeron darted back downstairs, as if what he said, that Rhaenyra was part of the family, was the most casual thing in the world.
Rhaenyra could feel her heart soar as the smile grew bright on her face. She probably would’ve broken out in laughing fits in joy if they all still weren’t waiting for her downstairs.
She quickly brushed her teeth and got changed before heading down. Alicent was carrying several plates full of pancakes, bacon, and eggs to the living room when she spotted Rhaenyra, flashing her a wide smile. Alicent’s hair was up in a messy bun and she wore a dark green robe around her. She set the plates quickly before the four children before turning her attention back to Rhaenyra.
“You all waited for me,” Rhaenyra whispered.
“I did not tell them to do that, they insisted all on their own,” Alicent said. Rhaenyra smiled even wider, if that was even possible. They leaned in and shared a deep kiss in the joy of the moment, only breaking apart when Aegon cleared his throat.
“Hurry up you two, come on!” He yelled.
Alicent rolled her eyes but they joined the group all the same. Rhaenyra hadn’t even noticed Criston was also sitting in the living room, listening intently as Helaena told him about some bug she had read about online a few days ago.
Christmas Day itself was rather calm, all things considered, after they opened presents. Aemond had gotten a handful of new books which he went off to his room to read. It had snowed earlier, which Aegon, Daeron, and Helaena seemed keen to take advantage of outside. Criston, exhausted from his work schedule, had ended up collapsing on their couch not long after the kids dispersed.
Alicent and Rhaenyra were content to spend the day cuddled up together in their bed. It was quiet and uneventful, like many of the past holidays she’d had in recent years, but just being with the Hightowers made it all feel more meaningful. Rhaenyra could feel the love in her heart and from the family.
She wasn’t just alone anymore, she could look forward to dinner where Aegon would make stupid, crass jokes that made her laugh anyway. Listen to Helaena rattle off facts she would never need but loved to know, see Aemond mock his brothers for their childish ways yet join in anyway at the slightest provocation, and watch Daeron brighten everyone’s day with his jovial presence.
She could enjoy nights spent in the peace and quiet with her girlfriend, no words needing to be said because just cuddling and light kisses were enough to ward away any worries or anxieties.
Only a few weeks later, Rhaenyra was glancing around the jewelry shop, trying to find the perfect ring so she could spend every holiday season in just the same way.